"Collision" is the eighth episode of Season 2 of Lost and the thirty-third produced hour of the series as a whole. After the tragic events in the jungle, Ana Lucia panics, putting everyone's safety in danger. Meanwhile, Mr. Eko takes Sawyer with him to find Jack, leading to the dramatic introduction of a full Oceanic Flight 815 survivor community.

The tail section group hears whispers all around them. Ana aims wildly, firing off a shot. It hits Shannon in the chest, and killing her. ("The Other 48 Days")

Flashback

Ana Lucia returns to work at the Los Angeles Police Department after taking a leave of absence because she was shot by a burglar on a call. She is assigned an office job, but demands to get back into a patrol car. Her captain, who is also her mother, reluctantly allows it. On patrol, Ana Lucia responds to a domestic disturbance call. It proves to be too stressful, as the domestic shouting match causes Ana Lucia to lose her calm and draw her gun. Her partner orders her to holster her weapon, calling her by first name when she does not respond to "Officer Cortez."

Returning to headquarters, Ana Lucia and her partner begin a discussion about her gun incident; it is cut short when Ana Lucia finds out the suspect who shot her has been caught. The suspect's name is Jason McCormack and, along with evidence from the crime scene and his confession, the only thing left is for Ana Lucia to identify him. She takes a look at the suspect and says, "It's not him." Despite objections by her mother, Ana Lucia stands by her claim and Jason is released.

Later, Ana Lucia sits in a bar having followed Jason, waiting for him until the end of the night. She stalks him to the parking lot where they are alone. ♪ She draws his attention by shouting his name, and upon being asked "I know you?" she draws her gun and makes the simple statement, "I was pregnant," before shooting him three times at far range, and three more times at point-blank range.

On the Island

Realizing it was Ana Lucia who shot Shannon, Sayid quickly pulls his gun on her. Eko stops him and, after a quick and muddy fight, Sayid is knocked unconscious. Ana Lucia orders Eko to tie Sayid up using vines from Sawyer's stretcher. Libby and Michael object, saying "Sawyer needs a doctor or he'll die," and Eko refuses. Ana Lucia then forces Libby at gunpoint to do so, saying she knows what she's doing.

Once Sayid is tied up, Eko carries Sawyer away to find the other survivors. Michael decides to give Sayid water, daring Ana Lucia to shoot him. Sayid asks Michael about Ana Lucia and Walt. Michael says Ana Lucia is a survivor from the tail section of the plane and that the Others took Walt. Sayid reacts strongly and angrily to the news about Walt, remembering that he would not believe Shannon when she said she saw Walt, believing him to be in the middle of the ocean.

The rest of the group confronts Ana Lucia, asking about her plan. Making a deal with Michael for the release of Sayid, Ana Lucia demands supplies from the Hatch: at least half of the camp's ammo, a big pack with blankets and clothes, "jeans and socks," so that she can live alone in the jungle. She is guilt-ridden and convinced that Sayid and the other survivors will not stop until they have avenged Shannon's death.

At the beach camp, Jack is getting water. Rose approaches him saying she's pleased he isn't in the hatch, when suddenly a golf ball falls into the water. Jack finds Charlie, Kate and Hurley playing golf. Jack challenges Kate to a game on the golf course. While playing golf, Jack and Kate encounter Eko carrying Sawyer. They enter the Swan to treat Sawyer, interrupting Locke in the middle of a crossword puzzle. Locke stops to ask what happened, but Jack reminds him that the timer is going off. ♪ Jack tries to give Sawyer a pill for the infection, but he won't swallow it. When Jack instructs Kate to hold Sawyer's head up, she holds him and gently and affectionately whispers into his ear until he takes the pill. Jack says he "never learned the whole whisper in the ear thing in med school." Eko, walking around the Swan, notices the DHARMA logo. He also finds the closet full of guns and displays a disapproving facial expression. Eko runs into Locke and the two stare at each other very strangely for several seconds. Eko tells Locke "a girl was shot and killed," describing her as "tall with blonde hair," whom Locke quickly identifies as Shannon, showing a sense of grief in his face. When asked if he could take Locke to the scene, Eko takes a quick look at the gun rack and says, "No."

After being informed that Shannon has been killed and Sayid is being held prisoner at gunpoint, Jack is furious. He demands Eko take him there, but Eko just sits in silence, telling Jack, "anything I say will only make you angrier." Michael, with Sun in tow, suddenly bursts into the Swan and tells Jack what happened. Jack grabs a rifle and a shotgun, gives the shotgun to Michael, and starts to make his way out of the Swan. Suddenly Eko screams, "Stop!" and asks Jack what he's looking for. "Peace? Revenge? Justice?" Jack replies that he wants all his people back safely. Then Eko says, "Ana Lucia made a mistake." Jack acts shocked when he hears Ana Lucia's name. Eko agrees to take Jack out to where Sayid and Ana Lucia are in the jungle, but only Jack, and without any guns.

Ana Lucia begins to interrogate Sayid, first oddly asking him whether he has children. He answers no and poses the same question to Ana Lucia, and she awkwardly replies no. He asks her if she is going to kill him, and she retorts, "Should I?" Sayid now relates how almost 40 days ago on the Island he tied a man to a tree and tortured him, as he had done to many others in his lifetime, others whose voices he still hear at night. Clearly facing a lot of mental anguish, he says perhaps she she was meant to kill him. Ana, in response, relates her story, saying that during her shooting, all she heard was a pop and that by the time she hit the ground she thought she was dead. She says she feels dead. Sayid asks what happened to her shooter, and Ana recalls when she shot Jason. After a long pause, however, she tells Sayid nothing happened to him and that they never found the guy.

Ana picks up Eko's blade, frees Sayid, drops both the machete and gun she was holding, and dares him to take his revenge, saying, "Go ahead, pick it up, I deserve it." Sayid says, "What good would it be to kill you, if we're both already dead?" and walks away. ♪

Eventually, the rest of the tail section survivors and Jin make it back to the camp, where Bernard and Rose as well as Jin and Sun are finally reunited. ♪

Out in the jungle, Sayid carries Shannon's body back to camp, and Ana Lucia and Jack finally meet again. ♪ The two stand apart, staring at each other. ♪

This is the only time in the series that a Special Guest Star did not have lines.

This episode was originally promoted as Charlie-centric and titled "Old Habits" in order to hide Shannon's death. There were hopes that viewers would think that this episode focused around Charlie using drugs again. However, the title would play into Ana Lucia's "old habit" of shooting people.

Prior to the regular podcast, a special episode-length commentary was released on November 24th, 2005. This podcast was designed to be synced with a DVR recording of "Collision" and featured the episode's writers Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Leonard Dick. The recording was not included on the Season 2 DVD set and is no longer available on ABC.com, but can be found at the following link: [1]

This is the first episode to be centric to someone who wasn't one of the original 14 main characters.

Deleted Scenes

A deleted scene from this episode shows Libby talking to a tied-up Sayid. Libby introduces herself and Sayid demands she unties him. Libby tells him that she can’t and Sayid tells her that "Shannon" is the name of the woman that Ana Lucia killed. Sayid points out that Libby is afraid of Ana Lucia which is why she won't untie him.

Bloopers and continuity errors

When Ana Lucia goes over to Shannon's (dead) body, Shannon can be seen breathing, as her chest and stomach are moving.

Ana Lucia and Big Mike's squad car is identified as Eight Adam Sixteen. Eighth watch is in the middle of the night, but this scene clearly takes place in the middle of the day. What's more, a radio call at the beginning of the scene just a minute earlier went out to One Adam Seven, a morning shift car.

Furthermore, Adam indicates a single-officer car, but this car has two officers, and should be identified as "Boy."

Cultural references

The Epic of Gilgamesh: When Locke answered the crossword clue 42 down, "Friend of Enkidu," the answer was "Gilgamesh." This is a reference to the aforementioned epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia. (Literary works) (History) (The reference may be analogous to the two titan (largest or tallest) characters in the series; Eko and Sawyer, who reflect Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and/or it may allude to Mr. Eko and John Locke, who, like the characters of the Epic, share a mystical destiny together: Both Locke and Eko have an inherent affinity with the island, while Gilgamesh and Enkidu share a divine destiny guided by the gods.)

Gilgamesh the King was a retelling of the epic by Robert Silverberg. The novel preserves a fundamental ambiguity over the issue of coincidence versus divine destiny, mirroring the storyline of John Locke and Mister Eko.